


of all the worlds

by pikasoos



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-09 05:10:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8877280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikasoos/pseuds/pikasoos
Summary: Sunggyu visits alternate universes in his sleep, and tries to find one where both Myungsoo and Howon exist.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inpiniteu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inpiniteu/gifts).



> To the lovely inpiniteu, this is probably not what you originally wanted, but after several times of trying to word things, this I hope that I did your prompts justice. Thank you for the lovely prompts that continue to inspire me even now. Thank you also the mods, who are always patient and kind even when I can be very… late. They also deserve a huge thank you for continually keeping INFINITE ficdom alive, no matter who continue to be in it. Finally, a huge thank you to I for the continued support and encouragement, as well as holding my hand as I struggled to write. You all are the best, and I couldn’t have done it without any of you.

**routine.**

It’s late when Sunggyu gets home, but the light in the kitchen is on, a lone plate of food placed on top of the dining room table. He toes off his shoes carefully, not letting go of his briefcase until he reaches the kitchen. The plate is covered, but there’s a sticky note on top in Myungsoo’s neat handwriting that reads, I know you haven’t eaten yet, but we made stir-fry and it tastes good. Love you.

Sunggyu feels guilty when he reads it, knowing fully well that he’s missed their monthly family dinner. Again.

(It’s supposed to be bi-weekly, but Sunggyu’s missed too much of those that the other two have decided to change it.)

“Welcome home,” Howon steps out of their shared room, arms folded across his chest as he stares at Sunggyu. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks,” Sunggyu rolls his eyes, much too used to Howon’s bluntness to be remotely offended. “I see you’re still up.”

“I was about to sleep… though someone’s loud footsteps woke me up.”

Sunggyu snorts, waving a hand towards Howon. “I’ll make sure not to disturb your beauty sleep.”

This is supposed to be Howon’s cue to go back to the room, where he curls up next to Myungsoo and holds him closer as they drift off to sleep while Sunggyu works an hour or two before he decides to join them. He has to work; it’s why they’re finally out of the tiny apartment they’ve rented since their university days and living in something more like home.

True to form, Howon does go back to sleep, though there is some variation tonight when he says, “Just… don’t stay up for too long.” Sunggyu nods at that before setting up his laptop, sighing when he sees that there are more emails to reply to, more work to be done with hardly an end in sight.

Two hours pass before Sunggyu starts to feel the drowsiness, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand as the words on the screen start to blur. There’s still a long way to go, but he’s going to get through this. He shouldn’t doze off, not now.

It doesn’t take much for Sunggyu to fall asleep at the dining table, the lack of sleep finally catching up to him. It’s understandable really, he hasn’t slept much in the past week and he forgets the time of the last meal he’s eaten.

This is where it usually starts.

 

**after dark.**

This world is much too shrouded in shadows, almost grungy… a place out of those comic books Sunggyu has seen Myungsoo reading. The buildings are dark, dingy and much too close together. Trash litters the streets, and nothing stands out among the whites, blacks and greys. Crime is rampant and Sunggyu wants to scream at the people who merely turn away and pretend they haven’t seen a thing. It’s even sadder when he ends up doing the same, making sure to avoid eye contact for fear of being the next target.

Sunggyu is a detective here, and he’s supposedly a good one according to the number of people who want to see him today. He declines all calls, trying to take a few deep breaths as he tries to regain his bearings. The worlds he usually ends up in are much similar to the one he comes from. This world is… terrifying, to say the least.

His phone rings once he settles back against his chair, cautious as he answers the phone. “Hello?”

“Kim-ssi,” His secretary pipes up, even though he’s just on the ground floor while Sunggyu is on the third. “Your ten o’clock is here to see you.”

His ten o’clock is an older woman, one who looks out of place in his office as she does in this town. Her eyes show the weariness of old age, but are watchful, alert because you can’t let your guard down in this city. Not at all.

“Kim Sunggyu-ssi?” She asks, clutching at her coat. “I… I have a case for you.”

“Look Ma’am, I only take on cases I know will benefit me, and you don’t look like you can afford me.” Sunggyu’s tone shocks himself, feeling cold. This isn’t him, not at all. Whoever this world’s Kim Sunggyu is, that’s not him at all.

“Please,” The old woman begs, expression frantic. “I’ll come up with the money somehow. Just please… help my son. He’s in a gang… he’s not the type of person to associate himself with that crowd.”

“Ma’am,” Sunggyu says carefully, fighting the urge to say words that the other Sunggyu would say. That person isn’t him, and he isn’t going to take control. Not now. “In case you haven’t noticed, this city isn’t exactly the place to build an upright, outstanding citizen.”

The woman is clutching at her coat again, eyes filling with tears and Sunggyu wants to shout at her, wants to ask why she’s here in this city if she can’t handle something like this. But he tramples those thoughts down, sighing.

“I assume you have a picture of your son? If I do take the job, I will have to tail him.” The woman slides a brown envelope towards him, expression worried as Sunggyu carefully opens it, fingers curling as he clutches the photograph.

Myungsoo’s face stares up at him from the picture, and Sunggyu is both relieved and horrified. He’s relieved that Myungsoo exists in this world, though that is soon replaced with horror as he notes the subtle differences between the Myungsoo on this earth and the Myungsoo back home. There are darker shadows under his eyes, those same eyes holding none of the warmth that Sunggyu associates with Myungsoo. Instead they are cold, unforgiving, and it makes Sunggyu want to throw up.

It’s only when Sunggyu looks up that he recognizes Myungsoo’s mother, but she too, has changed. She looks decades older, cheeks sagging from the obvious marks of plastic surgery.

This world has no Howon (Or rather, they don’t have one anymore. He died young.). It only has Myungsoo, a sweet boy who mixes with the wrong people and who depends too much on that little bag of white powder his associates freely give him. He doesn’t stop when Sunggyu catches him, or even as Sunggyu kisses him in a moment of pure foolishness. The Myungsoo of this world is long gone; lost to the world of crime and drugs, and Sunggyu hates that he feels so powerless about it.

 

**b.o.d.y.**

The next world isn’t much better, though it does look significantly cleaner than the first world he’s visited tonight. It’s still the same stuffy buildings, but more polished, foreboding almost.

Sunggyu is a prosecutor this time, a step up from his detective job in the previous world. He has his own office again, and he’s apparently a big deal because most of the interns are nervous around him and his co-workers like to show him off. It’s pompous and a little too much and he hates it here already.

There is no Myungsoo in this world (he thinks, he hasn’t seen him around yet), but there is a Howon, and he’s just as unbearable here like he is in Sunggyu’s world. He’s sarcastic and snarky, one of the best cops of the Seoul Metropolitan Police.

In this world, Howon is attracted to him, and Sunggyu can honestly say that it’s mutual as they tumble into bed together, the touch and feel of Howon’s skin so familiar. This Howon is not so different from the one in Sunggyu’s world; competitive and so sure of himself as his lips and teeth leave their marks on Sunggyu’s skin.

What makes them so different is evident the next morning, when Sunggyu wakes up and finds the other side of the bed empty. There are no notes, no evidence that Howon had been in his apartment the previous night.

Nothing but the marks left on Sunggyu’s skin.

**paradise (?).**

Sunggyu likes this world second-best out of all the ones he’s visited, because they’re both here and they’re both his. The three of them are idols, bandmates in a group of seven called INFINITE. Their group is successful and they’re reaching their seventh year. They can’t be as open about their relationship as they’d like, but he has both Myungsoo and Howon by his sides and it’s honestly the best thing he can wish for. He doesn’t want it to end at all.

But good things usually have limits, and Sunggyu is removed from this world much too soon, so it’s not quite the paradise he wishes it would be.

 

**identity.**

They’re still idols in this world, still members of the same group but much younger than the previous one. At least, that’s what Sunggyu thinks. They are five this time, a group to possibly rival the popularity of their DBSK sunbaes.

It’s two in the morning when Sunggyu gets up to go the bathroom, taking care not to step on Woohyun or Dongwoo as he pads out of the room. He blames all the water he downed during practice earlier, sighing when he finds the bathroom door closed, the light still on. He’s about to knock when he hears Myungsoo speak, brows furrowed as he makes out the words.

“I’m supposed to be the maknae, hyung. Maknaes are supposed to be cute.” Sunggyu hears Myungsoo tell someone. Myungsoo is cute though, Sunggyu thinks to himself. He is polite to his hyungs, is determined to work hard, and his entire face scrunches up when he laughs, a break from the face that draws attention from the others at the company and people who get too close.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Myungsoo.” It’s Howon speaking now, and he’s just as awkward with comfort as the Howon on his world, especially when he first became friends with Myungsoo. “You’re… cute. The people will like you.”

Sunggyu agrees with this, however, Myungsoo isn’t the kind of cute people think a maknae is made of. He’s tall and awkward; with stiff limbs that have difficulty grasping moves until he’s sweating profusely and gasping for breath. Myungsoo also isn’t a good singer, Sunggyu thinks, his tone sounds too much like a side character from those shoujo mangas he reads, slightly grating to the ears.

He is handsome though, and Sunggyu has heard the people in their company tell Myungsoo that his looks make up for everything. All he needs to do is stand there and look pretty, and it used to irritate the Sunggyu of this world as to how Myungsoo has managed to stay and make the final line-up when there are better people, more talented people, who could take his place. Now it just makes him worry, because they’re going to debut and it isn’t in Myungsoo’s nature to be negative or self-pitying.

He opens the door, startling both Myungsoo and Howon as he rasps out, “What’s taking so long?”

Myungsoo scrambles out of the bathroom quickly, tone apologetic. “Sorry I took so long, hyung. Goodnight.”

Sunggyu stares after him before looking at Howon, who shrugs and heads to bed as well, clearly not one to talk if it isn’t his story to tell. Typical.

 

Four days pass when two new members are added to their final line-up, five becoming seven in the blink of an eye. Sungyeol and Sungjong round up the maknae line along with Myungsoo, loud and full of life in ways that Sunggyu knows Myungsoo still struggles with. Sure enough, he finds Myungsoo in the bathroom once again, quietly staring at the mirror as if it holds all his answers. There’s something in his eyes that Sunggyu hasn’t seen before, recognizes it because he’s seen it in himself a few times over the years. Desperation.

It soon dawns on Sunggyu that Myungsoo isn’t the youngest anymore, and maybe he should stop being so hard on him.

“Hey,” He places a hand on Myungsoo’s shoulder, trying to get the words out. “Don’t stress about being cute. It’s Sungjong who’ll have to do the ridiculous aegyo once we debut.”

Myungsoo’s brows furrow at that, turning to look at him. “Then what else am I going to contribute to the group? I’m not… I can’t sing well like you or Woohyun hyung. I can’t dance like Dongwoo hyung or Howon hyung…”

“You’re going to be whoever the company wants you to be.” Sunggyu says, noticing how Myungsoo shrinks at that. “We will have roles to play, and we will use those roles to make our group stand out. Only then will we be able to venture out of the image constructed for us, okay?”

Myungsoo nods, shell-shocked because Sunggyu rarely talks to him like this. Hell, Sunggyu doesn’t talk to Myungsoo much in general, but he feels like he needs to say it, needs to tell Myungsoo not to give up and work hard to forge his own path in INFINITE.

 

It’s the night before debut when Howon approaches him, already dressed in his stage outfit. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Sunggyu straightened up, curious.

“I heard you talking to Myungsoo a few months ago… when Sungyeol and Sungjongie joined? That was… nice of you.”

“I’m his hyung, of course I’d say that.”

Howon’s arms are folded across his chest, expression thoughtful. “It came from a hyung, and INFINITE’s leader. That’s what I meant, okay?”

Sunggyu takes back what he said. He likes this world second-best instead, because while it does have both Myungsoo and Howon, he gets to stay a little longer and get to know them all over again.

 

**reality.**

“Hyung?”

“Sunggyu hyung?!”

Sunggyu wakes up with a start, Myungsoo and Howon’s concerned faces above him. He doesn’t remember falling asleep on their bed; he recalls working at the dining table hours ago. “What happened--”

“You were thrashing around in your sleep.” Myungsoo says, climbing into bed next to him while Howon wordlessly settles on Sunggyu’s other side.

“You were yelling too.” Howon adds, and it’s odd, seeing both of them so solemn when they’re usually so bright… or snarky, in Howon’s case. “We thought you were having a nightmare.”

“I’m fine, really.” Sunggyu rubs at his eyes, feeling groggy as he gropes for his phone. “Where’s my phone?”

Myungsoo and Howon share a look at that before trapping Sunggyu between them, Myungsoo’s nose nuzzling against Sunggyu’s cheek.

“We might have… called in sick for you.”

“We told them you came down with a terrible, terrible flu and need about a week to recover.” Howon says, and Sunggyu doesn’t have to look at him to know he’s smirking. “They might have protested, but we persuaded them. To give you the week off.”

“Why do I hear ‘persuaded’ as threatened?” Sunggyu asks wryly, fingers combing through Myungsoo’s hair as he leans against Howon.

“We only care about your health, hyung.”

At the end of the day though, Sunggyu likes his own world better, because he has Myungsoo and Howon, and they love him even if he can be a stubborn idiot.


End file.
